Why MUDs Own MMORPGs in the PvP Arena.

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The concept of “health” is integral to most games you will find out there. You have X amount of health and when it hits zero, you die. Secondary resource bars are also common in RPGs. If you are a caster, you might use mana. If you are a damage dealing machine, you might have rage or energy or some other stat which indicates your attack power, but the idea boils down to the same thing; in the end, you have meters and resources.

The core of combat in IRE games is focused around how to hinder these healing methods. You can give afflictions which have a variety of devastating effects – anorexia, for example, makes someone unable to eat or drink, while paralysis makes them unable to move. Classes like the Syssin from Aetolia are masters of stacking these afflictions to completely “lock” opponents up and prevent them from curing.

Damage isn't the only way to kill, and some classes such as the Cabalists even have ways to link their health bar to their mana reserves making them nigh impregnable against straight damage. Iron Realms MMOs feature “insta-kills” which are basically kill scenarios you can work to set up and then instantly kill an enemy with. For example, the newly revamped Carnifex guild features an incredible ability called pulverize which looks absolutely brutal when executed. To set up that kill, they need to strategically break enemy limbs and get certain afflictions to “stick”.and if their foe fails to cure them, the Carnifex knight can smash their hammer into their opponent's chest, crushing it into a bloody, fatal paste.

This is just touching on the tip of the PK iceberg. Combat in MUDs is engaging, engrossing and enthralling and you can spend years exploring tactics and finding new tricks. It is a truly challenging and exciting experience, unrivaled in gaming, where quick thinking and clever tactics will let you rise to the top.

In theory it does but everything is so automated now that it tends to simply favor those who have the most in-depth programming and scripting knowledge. Still fun with great complexity though, much of which is still beyond me but I look forward to learning.

is necessarily limited. Lusternia has something like 70+ afflictions. There's no way to reasonably convey that much information in a graphical MMO. More complex combat means there's more room for clever tactics and underdog strategy, which I find greatly appealing.

Back in the old days Narsrim used to kill people by making them eat poisoned pies.

Honestly there isn't much difference between mmo and mud combat. Both really just factor down into an amount of time healing and defence wise. The fact is with the system requirement taking any amount of player skill out of healing requirements you get the same MMO payoff it's just instead of having a broken leg for x seconds you have a broken leg for x seconds if you have something. The real difference comes with the offense in the came, and sadly some people automate that as well, on top of that some classes are almost completely the same as an mmo in that you just hit your J alias over and over again. Of course I'm compairing my mmo pvp knowledge to guildwars, and from what I am away GW did pvp right while most MMO's just fail at it. So I guess that is the major difference IRE doesn't fail at pvp like most other developers.

I've played Achaea numerous times on and off, and I've always been fascinated by the depth and creativity of the combat system--specifically, the PK and spar combat. I've always also thought it kind of neat that preparing oneself OOCly by enacting triggers to deflect afflictions and moves actually feels a bit IC, too, if you think of it as genuinely learning from past mistakes and combating them by being more prepared the next time you step into the ring. And I guess this happens in MMORPGs as well, but they simply can come nowhere near the vastness of combat in the MUD realm.

It's almost IC - in fact, it can be IC - but a lot of people get their triggers and even systems OOCly rather than through IC means, which is fair enough because getting them all yourself is a huge barrier to combat as it stands, but honestly with the prevalence of systems, they ought to at least send explicit affliction information via GMCP and stuff.

Something like...

Char.State.List

-If enabled, sends a list of the character's current afflictions whenever DIAGNOSE (or a similar ability) is used, or a list of the character's current defenses whenever DEF (or a similar ability) is used.

Char.State.Added

-Whenever the character gains one or more defenses or afflictions, it sends them in an array of strings. If the ability doesn't explicitly say which affliction/defense is gained, the string "affliction," "defense," or "unknown" is sent instead. If the affliction/defense is gained without any notice, no message is sent. Eg. Char.State.Added [ "shivering", "frozen" ].

Char.State.Removed

-As Char.Affliction.Added, but whenever an defense or affliciton is lost, instead. After dying, you'll probably get a huge freaking list, though, so if it's simpler to do, there might also be a Char.State.Cleared message too for situations like that, or for abilitites that strip all afflicts and defs.

I've had friends over the years that I've tried to get involved in Achaea. The learning curve is pretty high to get involved in combat, and that's even if you have bought your own system. It can be a barrier to entry I think.

I have yet to play some of the fps, strategy, or space exploration type muds so I can't quite say how well it is in comparison. I usually lower the graphics so low in pvp games that it minds well just be ascii art heh.

As a knight of achaea, you are forced to fight with the faster blades of choice, like rapiers, some just use scimitars. but in the end it's takes some skill to stack venoms on an opponent as most now days have bought extremely good healing systems where as some like myself, build them from scratch, I generally do the bare minimum of venom stacking to a point where i can atleast do a disembowel, which after a few dsl's may actually end up for a kill, problem is, one : your target has to be prone, and unable to move, two: they have to be impaled and stay impaled to i regain balance, and three, they have to have less then 2.6k health at the time, otherwise the alternative is a cleave, but that a 10 - 12 second delay, alot can happen in that time.

It's unfortunate i don't know enough about the mage class that i can actually kill anyone, i know crystalism is supposed to be used alot, but in essence personally i think the mage class is not very good for insta's as the holo caust has been modified to do less damage and only now effective against groups. Someone may argue, but mages are much better at npc bashing the player killing.

Well I don't 100% agree. Saying "own" is regarding this in a matter that everyone is looking for the same thing out of combat.

Sometimes I really just want to smash things - if I'm in that sort of mood and MMROPG is going to be much better. If I'm really tuned in and want to really test my skills, a MUD is going to be better. But one is not necessarily going to 'own' the other because they're fun - at least in my opinion - for completely different reasons.

The pvp in a mud is far more complex. An mmorpg might involve MAYBE sipping a potion or two eveyr now and then. One fight you probably will take multiple herbs, and potions on top of mashing attacks at an even increased rate of speed typically.

I think both graphical esports mmo's and muds are probably on the same level for different reasons. They both require complex thinking and both have an arsenal of defenses tactics used to prevent your opponent from gaining a victory. If anything, due to absense of artefact like items, the graphical mmos are at least more balanced and challenging.

This is one of the aspects that drew me to Achaea years ago. The combat is more than a simple "Hit target" with the victor the being who can outlast the other. With IRE's combat, at least the PVP portion, combat is incredibly complex and far more interesting. Even with a good set of reflexes in place, victory requires skill rather than brute character force.

I have always had difficulty with getting into PvP in any of the IRE games. While I will say it appears to be much richer than that available in your traditional mmorpgs, I think it is quite complex and takes a real commitment to learn.

I think my favorite part about IRE pvp is the creative ways to kill people the design teams have come up with. Damage kills are rare, unless there are large group battles or an ability that does massive damage if certain preexisting conditions are met. Huzzah for IRE!